Thursday, 19 February 2015

[News] Jolla's Sailfish OS presented in Russia Expert Council meeting

Sailfish OS & client OS workgroup of Expert Council in Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications in Russia

Moscow, February 18, 2015. — Nikolay Nikiforov, Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications, carried out third meeting of workgroup on client operating systems under Expert Council of Minsvyaz on Development of Information Technologies.

Heads of Jolla presented their independent mobile operating system (OS) Sailfish. Members of the meeting discussed perspective collaboration with heads of Jolla, particularly, use of Sailfish OS in state and private sectors taking into consideration technical, economic and political factors

Sailfish OS of Jolla Oy presented in Russia Expert Council meeting

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Mobile operating system Sailfish OS, based on open source mer project and developed further by Jolla Oy, Finland, has been presented as one of the alternatives in the development of client OS services in Russia

Minsvyaz (Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications in Russia) is taking huge steps in supporting Russian software development, aiming towards using and exporting their own development. However, the world is global, and not all things can be done by themselves. Companies and organizations from elsewhere are needed, and Jolla from Finland might have something to offer as part of the solutions Russia is searching for.

For history of Telecommunications in Russia, let's not forget Mr. Alexander Stepanovich Popov who built the first radio receiver in Russia back in year 1895. And as a pick from the history of mobile industry, Nokia from Finland is worth mentioning with their first NMT device.

Jolla Oy, provider of Sailfish OS is a small Finnish start up company. The Expert Council has already listened Samsung presenting their open source mobile OS Tizen, but looking at what Russia is really up to (read carefully below), they might have another look at the size of Samsung on this matter. On the other hand, looking at the size of Jolla, this small start up should look carefully where they step in - this level of cooperation is a huge playground in the industry.

But for now, let's dig into the official details delivered by Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications in Russia:

Feb. 16, 2015: 3rd Meeting of workgroup on client operating system of Expert Council of Minsvyaz on development of IT with representatives of Jolla

Leading specialists of the following Russian IT companies took part in the meeting:

Yandex

Kaspersky Laboratory

Alt Linux

Acronis

Parallels

Mobile Inform Group

SPIRIT DSP

research and development IT center Rosa

ReactOS

MCST

scientific development and production center RusBITex, ESN Group)

development institutions (Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises in Science and Technology)

scientific and educational establishments (Institute for System Programming of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization of Higher Education Innopolis University)

Members of the meeting discussed perspective collaboration with heads of Jolla, particularly, use of Sailfish OS in state and private sectors taking into consideration technical, economic and political factors.

“We’ve gathered here to discuss further development of operating systems in Russia, achievement of technological independence and creation of internal competence centers,” said Nikolay Nikiforov

“Previously we decided to concentrate on possibilities for using free software for achievement of technological independence of Russia. Choice of appropriate, technologically developed platform is an important step towards further improvement of software solutions that meet needs of the government and internal users.”

Nikolay Nikiforov reminded that Minsvyaz carries out a number of meetings with representatives of technological communities and developers of key perspective operating systems with open code that can be interesting for corporations, system support and promotion on behalf of the government.

Backgrounds

Expert Council of Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications on Development of IT industry

The council was created already on September 27, 2012, and since then there's been four meetings. October 12, 2012, April 26, 2013, April 8, 2014 and December 16, 2014. Image above is from the latest meeting.

During the meetings, additional workgroups on creation of crucially important software products were created for development of Russian software. Six workgroups were formed for six groups of crucially important software products: client OS, cloud and server OS, virtualization OS, software for mutual work, engineering software and software for mathematic modeling, geoinformation systems.

The first meeting of workgroups took place at the end of November, 2014. Participants discussed situation on Russian software market, perspectives of Russian developers of important software products, underdeveloped, but important information technologies, state support of competitive domestic software products, terms and resources, required for introduction of new IT products on the market. The group was comprised from 100 IT specialists of leading Russian IT companies, development institutions, scientific and educational institutions.

Members of the Expert Council positively evaluated work of Minsvyaz in 2014 and made several suggestions regarding its further work.

Workgroup on client operating systems under Expert Council of Minsvyaz on Development of Information Technologies

1st meeting in the end of November 2014 members discussed current situation at Russian software market, perspectives of internal developers of critical software, IT that are underdeveloped in Russia, but are potentially interesting, measures of government support for creation of competitive products, terms and resources, required for launch of new products into market.

2nd meeting took place on February 5th with presentation of Tizen OS of Samsung Electronics, Korea

3rd meeting took place on February 16th with presentation of Sailfish OS of Jolla Oy, Finland

Nikolay Nikiforov - Speech on development of information technologies and telecommunications services

November 19th, 2014 Nikolay Nikiforov, Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications, made a speech on development of information technologies and telecommunications services on the “government hour” in the State Council.

Full speech is available here, but here are our picks concerning the main goals why Russia might take advantage of cooperation with Samsung's Tizen or Jolla's Sailfish OS:

"Dear members of the State Council, colleagues!"

"Lack of highly-qualified specialists is one of the most serious problems in the sphere. Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications cooperatively with Ministry of Education and Science work on improving the situation."

" ”The strategy on development of information technologies in the Russian Federation for 2014-2020 and for the perspective till 2025” was developed and approved -- It will allow preparing nearly 350 thousand additional specialists in IT sphere by 2020."

"Under the circumstances of current geopolitical situation and for development of internal IT industry the President of Russia and the Chairman of the Government set a goal to develop a complex of measures for support of Russian software."

"Currently the whole world uses software products of one country and just a few foreign companies. Monopoly always leads to negative consequences. We all remember the situation, when our citizens couldn’t use their bank cards due to sanctions. We also know the cases of illegal collecting of data of the Internet users by security services of some countries. Of course such cases have significantly harmed credibility of foreign software products."

"Many state consumers and commercial enterprises are worried about this situation and started to look for alternatives to foreign software. Many of them are ready to buy Russian software products."

"Minsvyaz cooperatively with Temporary Commission of the State Council on Development of Information Society and with the active involvement of Russian software developers prepared suggestions on providing preferences to Russian software products in purchases of public authorities and state companies."

"We are not going to introduce embargo on purchases of foreign software. What we suggest is: when the purchase includes software products or related services and the register of national software products includes a required product, customer must state impossibility or inexpediency of Russian software products to solve the issue in report, published on the portal on procurements."

"What these software products include? -- These also are so-called operating systems, which are contained in our mobile phones, tablets and other devices." [editorial note: as one of six presented]

"For each type of these software products we currently create special workgroups under the Expert Council of Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications on Development of IT industry. These are capital intensive and complex engineering products."

"Nearly 40 billion rubles will be required annually during 5-7 years for ensuring breakthrough in IT sphere."

"We suppose that Russian software industry must be export-oriented. Under the circumstances of current geopolitical situation BRICS-countries are the potential region for export of Russian software."

"Dear colleagues! We’ve faced a period of global changes that requires appropriate solutions from us. Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications and the Government of Russia will develop legislative framework aimed at support of software and telecommunication equipment industry. These legal acts can be connected with sources of financing and conditions of state procurements. We look forward to your support."